100
by uptightcrankyshadownet
Summary: 100-word drabbles (based on prompts) about Alma and Dylan :-)
1. Evidence

"Alma, you know your boyfriend…"

Alma grins, feeling a flush of pride and affection as her colleague address Dylan as her boyfriend. "Yes?"

"You know how there's still this rumour that says he's the Fifth Horseman, not Thaddeus Bradley? I mean, the evidence doesn't exactly completely match up, you know. There are still points of contention." He murmurs in a conspirational tone. "What do you think? You know him better than we do."

She waves it away. "Dylan? Fifth Horseman? He's too boring for that."

Behind her computer, Alma smirks to herself._ If you only knew._


	2. I'm Here

The first thing she'd learned about him after she'd moved into his place was that Dylan had nightmares. Frequent nightmares that left him clutching the sheets in fists that turned his knuckles white, with cold sweat pouring down his temples and heaving shallow, desperate breaths, whimpering unintelligible words.

"I'm here," She'd whisper into his ear while holding him tight and pressing a kiss to his cheek. "Dylan, je suis ici. I'm here."

It was the only way he'd be able to calm down, to relax in her arms, and slowly drift back to sleep.


	3. Funeral

It seems as if the world goes into shock when one of the infamous, seemingly immortal Four Horsemen die. Nobody expects larger-than-life Daniel Atlas to be mugged and stabbed, returning from the convenience store with a late-night snack for the trio back in their apartment.

It's a death too ordinary for an extraordinary man.

Dylan arranges and pays for the funeral expenses behind the scenes. He watches the open-air ceremony from the hilltop, sees the remaining three hold each other and cry.

When he succumbs to the emotions, it's Alma who holds him steady.


	4. Gloves

He catches her looking enviously at Henley's array of gloves, once, when he takes her backstage before the opening night of one of their shows. When he asks her about it, she ruefully admits that she loves gloves, she's fascinated by them, but in her line of work they aren't very practical, so why get any?

On her birthday he gets her a custom-made pair, striking red and heady black and 'la foi peut déplacer des montagnes' hemmed into them, and her brilliant smile when she puts them on is all the thanks that he needs.


	5. Storm

The car stalls while they're having a drive through the countryside, and Dylan swears when he sees the tank's empty, which means a walk to the nearest gas station.

They've walked for twenty minutes and it starts to storm, and Dylan isn't sure how it could get any worse.

Until they see an inn just a short distance away and Alma makes him dance in the rain just for the heck of it, and when they check in for the night she snuggles close, says "thank you" and maybe it's not so bad after all.


	6. Magic

For a long time, magic to Alma was sleight of hand and card tricks and making things disappear and reappear out of thin air, the handkerchief from a sleeve.

For a long time, magic to Dylan was the flashbang of deception and making things come alive and the look on people's faces when they realized they'd been fooled, that they'd been conned.

Then they fell in love, and suddenly magic was the way she smiled when she saw him after a long day at work and the way his eyes lit up when she said his name.


	7. Secret

Dylan's kept secrets all his life. After the death of his father, there was nobody to tell them to, after all.

Being in the FBI while leading his secret double life- agent of the Eye, what the public, the press, the police dubbed the Fifth Horseman, son of Lionel Shrike.

It takes a toll on him, because he's only human after all.

And then life puts Alma in his path and he doesn't need to bear such a heavy burden of with all of his secrets any more, not with her listening ear and her willing heart.


	8. Beach

She brings him to a beach for his birthday, a simple celebration, and it's only when they get there when he realizes that his lasting fear and hatred of water that's lain dormant for so long, fear and hatred he thought he'd overcome, still lives.

He's sure she sees it in the way he blanches when the cerulean blue of the ocean comes into view, but the sand's golden like her hair and the currents ripple like the curve of her slender frame and he's willing to force it aside to see her smile.


	9. Cry

"Will you come to visit the Lionel Shrike tree with me tomorrow?"

It's a blunt invitation from Dylan on the eve of Lionel Shrike's death anniversary, and she accepts.

The Horsemen are there. They bow in reverence, in respect, and watch Dylan quietly as he cries freely.

Alma brushes the tears away with a soft butterfly kisses, and when he finally manages to pull himself together best as he can, Merritt gives them a little grin and claps Dylan lightly on the shoulder. "You're a lucky man."

Dylan smiles broadly even with bloodshot, tearstained eyes. "I am."


	10. Lost

Dylan Rhodes is never lost.

He's always been five, six steps ahead of everyone, after all. The FBI, his Horsemen, everyone. He can't afford to be lost, not after his father was, in the sea.

But then he looks up into Alma Dray's eyes when his head's on her lap, his eyes are closed, and she's singing a French song in her glorious voice, and he's completely and utterly lost in her eyes, her voice, her smile. And yet at the same time, he's found himself in ways he can never really explain.


	11. Strawberries

She buys strawberries home one day when they're on sale, along with a carton of other things- melted chocolate, Nutella, peanut butter, jam, and a mighty assortment of other gooey substances in jars, and she's so excited, it's adorable.

Alma shoves dinner aside impatiently when they get home, makes him lay out bowls of the various foodstuffs, then begins coating the red fruit with honey and butter and maple syrup and everything else she's carted home. Dylan makes a pleasant discovery- strawberries slathered with yogurt and cocoa powder, shockingly, taste a lot better than they sound.


	12. Weapon

For a long time, Dylan'd found himself impenetrable to anything people threw at him, his frozen heart the perfect armor against the vicious weapons of reality. Nobody could really get close. Nobody could really get past the facade he put up, the defense mechanisms.

He'd prided himself on that.

It had taken Alma Dray for him to understand that perhaps steel and iron couldn't pierce through his wall of ice, but maybe the warmth of her eyes and the brief touch of her hand on his were melting it faster, more effectively, than he'd ever predicted.


	13. Aloof

To be honest, when he first meets her, blonde-haired, green-eyed, your classic, elegant Frenchwoman, he's pretty sure she's going to be cold, aloof, uptight, like all the French he's ever met. And he treats her as if she was, from the start.

Then she does her shoddy trick on the plane and flicks her card onto some stranger's lap, she smiles like an angel and she tries to drag him home from the bar when he's getting drunk (or so she thinks), and Dylan realizes that, for once, he was so, so wrong.


	14. Blood

It's such a cliche- reckless drunk driver on a busy road. Dylan doesn't really see what happens. All he knows is that one moment, Alma's walking ahead of him on the road while he gets a paper, and the next, there's the screech of tires and a chorus of screams and she's lying, one crumpled heap, a few metres away.

He thinks he breathes her name, then runs over. So much blood, _so much blood, _she's not moving, her eyes go dark and Dylan's heart stops.

"Call an ambulance!"

_It's too late._


	15. Taxi

"Taxi!" Dylan roars, running to the curb with a scarf around his neck. He grits his teeth in frustration, giving his watch a glance. He's late. She's going to make him pay for lunch. _Dammit._

Three blocks away, Alma waits impatiently at the hotel for the taxi she'd booked. It's late. Dylan's going to get there early, and she's going to have to pay for lunch. Either that or he'll give her that insufferable _look _she can't stand.

They end up reaching at the exact same time.

"Damn taxis and going dutch."


	16. Search

"I'm going somewhere. Yes, it has to do with the Eye, no, you can't come, and no, you'll never see me again."

Alma props herself up on one arm, tilts her head to the side, watches him pick his tie up from the floor of her bedroom and put it on. "I'll search for you." It's a statement of fact, calm and steady. "And I'll find you."

"Is that a challenge?"

She shakes her head. "Je viens avec vous."

He smiles, almost fondly. "I'll let you search."

She smiles back. "See you soon."


	17. Grateful

Dylan doesn't know how to say everything he wants to.

She's made his life mean more than revenge. She's given him _hope, _taught him so much about faith and about love_. _Words can't properly express just how grateful he is to Alma, to whoever put her in his path.

She is quite possibly the best thing that's ever happened to him, and he smiles when she snuggles beside him and whispers "thank you for everything", because it's him who should be thanking her, and not the other way around.

She is so worth it. And he hopes he is too.


End file.
